The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 814

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Chapter 814

No matter how hardened a person became, they still needed other people.

Through nine years of disasters, Nicole had killed to survive and fought both people and nature. Staying alive left little time for loneliness.

But since leaving the military base, they had barely spoken to anyone else.

Day after day, it was just the four of them, eating, sleeping, and sharing the same cramped space, with no end to the disasters in sight.

They had plenty of food and water, vessels for every kind of escape, and her storage space to shelter them from even the worst disasters.

Compared with most survivors, Nicole had it easy. Yet even that didn’t seem to be enough.

Perhaps she simply had too much time on her hands.

She was grateful for everything they had, but a heaviness had settled over her that she couldn’t shake.

The days blurred together. She wasn’t quite happy or sad. Sometimes, she struggled to see the point of any of it.

As a doctor, she recognized the toll those years of relentless disasters had taken on her. Now the land was gone, and with it, much of her hope.

She was beginning to show signs of depression.

She wasn’t the only one struggling. Cola often lay around the submarine, barely moving.

Poppy still smiled, but when she let her guard down, worry crept into her expression.

Even Zeph was keeping his feelings to himself. None of them had spoken about it.

They needed a change before things got worse.

The sight of another submarine like theirs brought Nicole an unexpected rush of excitement. She hadn’t realized how happy it would make her.

She still wanted contact with the world beyond their little group. After everything people had put her through, she still missed them.

The other submarine seemed to have spotted them as well. It stopped, leaving the two vessels hovering silently a few hundred yards apart in the deep water.

Zeph seemed to understand, “Wanna say hello?”

Nicole didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

There was even a chance, however small, that Jeremy and Hughie were aboard.

Besides, she had promised the pilot from the eastern base that she would pass the coordinates along.

A light flickered in the other submarine’s second observation window. Someone was signaling with a flashlight,

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Chapte: 814

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asking whether they were friendly.

It was a simple attempt to find out if they were on the same side.

Submarines once had sophisticated detection systems that could locate vessels far beyond a few hundred yards. Now they were down to flashlights.

Each branch of the military had its own signals. Nicole knew only the few Jacob had taught her during their submarine training.

The person kept flashing the same message.

Nicole and Zeph climbed to their second observation window and signaled back with a flashlight, asking them to identify themselves.

They weren’t ready to let their guard down. So much time had passed since the tectonic plates collided, and survival was brutal. Anyone could be aboard that submarine.

Nicole noticed that it didn’t have any civilization vaults attached.

The southern military base’s mission was to preserve civilization. Its crews would’ve cut the vaults loose only as a last resort, abandoning them to save their own lives.

Either that had happened, or someone else had taken the submarine.

Several minutes passed before the light flashed again. “1926.”

Jeremy and the others were aboard No. 2639. Nicole felt a pang of disappointment, though she still hoped this encounter would lead to something good.

With the land gone and the planet covered in water, running into anyone from their old base felt like an incredible stroke of luck

The flashlight went out, and a face appeared in the round window.

Nicole stood to one side and studied him through her binoculars. He appeared to be in his thirties, with a gaunt face and slightly sunken eyes.

“Do you think he’s military?” she asked.

Even with his military and police experience, Zeph couldn’t tell just by looking at the man’s face.

Still, the submarine should’ve had plenty of supplies aboard. If raiders had taken it, Zeph wouldn’t have expected them to look so thin.

People who risked their lives stealing whatever they wanted tended to live for the moment. They probably wouldn’t ration their food so carefully.

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